THOSE WERE THE DAYS, REMEMBERS AJIT WADEKAR

Along with Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik, he forms part of a spin troika that is expected to raise problems of mammoth proportions for the visiting Pakistanis. In the past nine years, Kumble and Harbhajan have won India matches against teams like Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand with either Kartik, Piyush Chawla, Sairaj Bahutule or Sunil Joshi taking up the third spinner’s role. Prior to that, Kumble had formed a lethal combination along with Chauhan and Raju in the nineties to help India rule at home.

Wadekar, who has been there and done that, and was also the coach of the Indian team when Kumble was busy finding his feet, cannot help but reflect on how it was spin that saved India the blushes on so many occasions in the past. Drawing comparisons with the current scenario, though, he also has his doubts on whether this old school of thought might still work.

“It’s always been a classic case of finding where your strengths lie and then making the most of it. In those days (when he was captain), there used to be hardly any medium-pacers — forget genuine fast bowlers — who you could make use of. There were times when Eknath Solkar or even Sunil Gavaskar would be given the new ball, such was the dearth. Therefore, in a way, there was no choice but to bank totally on the spinners,” says Wadekar. The fact that he tasted success with them, he says, is just because of how highly talented they were in their departments.

As coach too, he entered the scene when Kapil Dev was bowing out, Javagal Srinath was yet to make his mark and Manoj Prabhakar the lone man running in. That was the time when Wadekar along with captain Azharuddin decided to bank on spinners.

“He (Kumble) was the (Bhagwat) Chandrashekhar of our team at that time. He would generate a lot of bounce, read the conditions and situation well and deliver. He used to be the prime weapon we could bank on,” said Wadekar.

Even for Azharuddin, trying to depend on Kumble used to be the best option available. “I don’t think Azhar thought any different because having a good player is always an advantage and there’s no harm using him as much as possible. We used to have a balanced side at that time too, and Azhar being a good player of spin understood this fact well. He knew the importance of a genuine spinner in the side and therefore gave them a lot of support,” says Wadekar.

But Wadekar’s opinion on spin being India’s only dominant force has gradually been changing in the last few years. Having seen the rising popularity of medium-pacers and the success the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji and Irfan Pathan achieved under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, “there’s much more to the Indian attack now,” he feels. Even now, as Kumble takes charge, Wadekar — following the current team keenly — is watching the progress of RP Singh and S Sreesanth in the team ranks.

Given the way pitches are prepared these days, the players’ mindset and also how batsmen over the world have learnt to tackle spin better, medium-pacers play an equally big role. “Have you seen today’s wickets? They have totally changed,” Wadekar points out. “Now we have such batsman-friendly wickets. Earlier, there used to be spinning tracks and therefore going with three seamers was no smart move. But times have changed now, it’s not about speciality as much as about variety,” he says.

In the same context, he cannot help but remember how Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatesh Prasad would have achieved more success than they did had the pitches been a little more supporting to medium-pacers. “The tracks never suited them, in fact they would appear pretty ordinary at times but that was not the case,” he says.

Now, Wadekar believes, it isn’t about going into a game with two spinners or three anymore. It is more about reading the opposition and then forming an attack that supports the gameplan. This, he believes, is because it’s no more because of lack of choice that we’re forced to play spinners.

“Next we play Australia and there, spinners aren’t going to play as big a role. The captain will need to keep all of this in mind. Right now if he feels that to tackle the Pak batsmen, he needs a left-arm spinner then good but it’s not as if there has to be a left-arm spinner or else the attack doesn’t work,” he says.

The selectors’ decision to provide Kumble with an off-spinner and a left-arm spinner both spells out the fact that India have gone into the first two Tests against Pakistan keeping in mind a large variety of bowling options that can also provide back-up in case of injuries or lack of form. However, to expect that India will go into the series banking on spin more than anything else is not the case, in fact, a thing of the past.